Marcus Trescothick believes England have made a mistake by discarding his
Somerset colleague Nick Compton for the first Ashes Test.

The former England opener insisted Compton should have opened the batting against Australia after a winter in which he appeared to have been groomed for the role.

The veteran of three Ashes series said Compton will now need time to recover from the blow of losing his place to Joe Root for the warm-up game against Essex on Wednesday, which is almost certain to feature England's Test line-up.

"It will be tough initially. It’s never easy when anyone gets dropped," Trescothick said. "It will hit him pretty hard.

"From speaking a bit with Nick, I think they’ve been a bit harsh with changing now. I thought they would see how the series started and if he didn’t get any runs, they might have changed it.

"I would have stuck with him personally, only a couple of games ago he got back-to-back hundreds. Anybody in that environment would expect to carry on."

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Compton impressed on the winter tours of India and New Zealand but his form collapsed in the home Tests against the Black Caps, when four overly cautious innings produced only 39 runs.

Trescothick agreed that Compton might have tried too hard to impress with the Ashes imminent.

"That's the sort of player he is," the 37-year-old said. "He bats for his life and is very intense about the way he approaches his cricket. You have to allow people to be the way they are. Over time, you might have seen a different player.

"He hasn't done a great deal wrong bar missing out in those two Tests over here. Any player can do that. That's why I believe it's tough."

While rival counties begin their Friends Life t20 campaign on Wednesday, Compton should be given the perfect opportunity to prove the England selectors wrong when Somerset begin their four-day game against Australia at Taunton.

"It's not the sort of thing you’d expect before a big series," he said. "I was really surprised to see the announcement. It can go one of two ways. They will rally around Darren Lehmann very quickly and get together, but if England get them under pressure you will see cracks will open quite easily.

"You might get an instant reaction but it’s hard to maintain that. It’s very hard to continually be the team you need to be unless you have built over a long period of time. If they get under pressure England will expose a few areas where they are weaker, in my opinion."

Marcus Trescothick was speaking at the launch of the 2013 Friends Life t20 competition. For more information and to buy match tickets please visit ecb.co.uk/FLt20. #FLt20.